Psychedelic Nebula: North-east of the famous Lagoon Nebula (Messier 8) lies a very faint nebulosity, which can only be appreciated in longer exposed photographs. All three types of nebulae are found in abundance in this extraordinary part of the sky: emission, reflection and dark nebulae. It is catalogued as Simeis 188. The large red area dominating the image is the HII region IC 4685. The winding Dark Nebula close to the center is Barnard 303, sometimes also called the Celestial Dragon. Many beautiful emission and reflection nebulae are arranged around the rim of the area creating such a tremendous explosion of colours to give nearly a psychedelic impression. The image was taken at the observatory of IAS at Hakos Farm in Namibia. The image has been selected Astrophoto of the Day(APOD).
|